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Current Opportunities

New: Policy Fellowship with Government Office for Science: Building Science and Engineering Capability Across Government

CAPE is pleased to announce a new policy fellowship opportunity working within the Government Office for Science to scope, evaluate, and improve knowledge exchange and academic placement programmes for scientists and engineers between government, industry and academia.

The fellowship is offered on a full-time basis, for up to 12 months, in the first instance. The fellowship award may be up to £50,000 funded through CAPE. The fellowship will start as soon as possible, subject to successful security clearance. The successful candidate will be based remotely to begin with owing to current Covid-19 working restrictions.

Deadline: 15 August 5pm (interviews expected to be held 24 August)

Government Office for Science (Go-Science) works at the heart of government to ensure that government policies and decisions are informed by the best scientific evidence and strategic long-term thinking. Our networks and insight across government will enable the fellow to inform and influence the systems for using science and engineering across government. If you are highly motivated and looking for the next challenge in your career, we want to hear from you. Find out more about the Government Office for Science.
This role will work with two teams in the Science & Innovation, Systems and Capability Division at Go-Science: the Government Science and Engineering (GSE) Profession Team and Science System and Academic Engagement Team. The role will focus on scoping, evaluating and improving knowledge exchange and academic placement programmes for scientists and engineers between government, industry and academia. Increasing capability through interchange across government, academia and business is a key aim of government. This position will play a central role in understanding the current barriers to interchange schemes and must apply creative problem solving to overcome them. The role will develop solutions to allow effective and long-lasting placement systems that will be used and communicated through the GSE profession across Government.

Role responsibilities

  • Scoping out current knowledge exchange and placement schemes that are used across government. This will involve lots of stakeholder engagement and management across a significant number of government departments.
  • Having, or gaining, an appreciation of funding mechanisms for related bodies who may be offering placements including government, universities, or other funders.
  • Provide analysis on the existing schemes to understand current systematic blockers and which type of scheme is most effective and beneficial.
  • Work with team leads to develop possible solutions for future, effective and long-lasting knowledge exchange programmes in government. This will require strategic thinking, large scale problem solving and creativity.
  • Presenting updates and potential solutions to senior leaders such as Chief Scientific Advisors and the GCSA.
Essential

  • Experience of stakeholder engagement and developing effective working relationships.
  • An understanding and/or experience of working in academia.
  • Ability to think creatively and systematically to solve very large-scale and embedded problems.
  • Confident in communicating with science and engineering deep-specialists alongside non-technical stakeholders.
  • Comfortable in establishing a project direction in the face of uncertainty, with the support of team members.
  • A desire to build up the skills capability of scientists and engineers within government, academia and business.
  • Confident presenting to senior audiences.
Desirable

  • Involvement in large scale projects with multiple dependencies.
  • An appreciation for the breadth of science and engineering that goes on across government.
Academic, research and university staff at CAPE partner universities (UCL, Cambridge, Manchester, Nottingham, Northumbria)
To apply please send:

  • a short CV (max 2 pp)
  • covering letter outlining your suitability for the role
  • letter of support from your line manager, HoD or supervisor confirming eligibility to take up the placement if awarded

Please combine documents into one PDF where possible. Applications should be sent to [email protected]

Download the above information as a PDF.

New: Policy Secondment: The Royal Academy of Engineering – Articulating Policy Impact

We are pleased to announce a new Policy Secondment opportunity through the Universities Policy Engagement Network (UPEN) with the Policy and International Partnerships Directorate of the Royal Academy of Engineering. The academy is looking for someone to work with them to develop deep, rich impact narratives which look back at issues on which the Academy has a track record of sustained policy work, to document that work and to track, understand and articulate the influence that workstream has had.

Please note this placement is only open to research and professional services staff at UPEN member universities.

For a full job description and to apply, visit the UPEN website.

Deadline Wednesday 28 July, 23:59